HalfLife: The Black Mesa Incident
by Master of Water
Summary: We all know the events that occured at the Black Mesa Research Facility on that fateful day. Now, the stories of each of the survivors are retold, and we find out exactly what happened... during the Black Mesa Incident.
1. Prologue

Welcome to Black Mesa.

Now, you may have read this story by me already, or you may not. In either case, the story has changed vastly since it was last uploaded, and this is a brand new repload of a story that is not Half-Life: Black Mesa, but Half-Life: The Black Mesa Incident.

Now this is a revised reupload, so all of the reviews it had previously will be deleted, so for posterity's sake, any previous reviews I've had, and the replies I've made, will be copied to the bottom of the relevant chapter. The old story will remain for one week before I delete it.

An explanation to the readers: Black Mesa is a big place, there's no denying it. So big that no official map exists for it, and if you just put all of the levels from the original game together it would overlap in some places. In order to make sense of it all, I've had to warp the original levels, change them, move parts, to get them in places where they make sense. And, amazingly, I managed it.

The stories of one man, Gordon Freeman, started the Half-Life saga in 1998, followed soon by its expansions Opposing Force and Blue Shift, and a number of fan-made mods. In order to relay the Mesa's size and complexity thoughout the story, the tales of Gordon Freeman, Adrian Shepherd and Barney Calhoun must be joined by the creations of fans.

This is the complete list of the series that will be involved in this story:

Half-Life  
Opposing Force  
Blue Shift  
Azure Sheep  
Transit  
Situation Amber

And now, the almighty disclaimer.

I claim no rights to the Half-Life franchise, which is the property of Valve. I claim no rights to Blue Shift or Opposing Force, which are the joint creations of Valve and Gearbox. I also claim no rights to the mod Azure Sheep (of which I have modified most of the chapter names). I do, however, own the ideas for both Transit and Situation Amber, unless there are mods already with those names.

Decay will not be featured in this story; despite this, efforts have been made to ensure continuity between it and the stories that are featured.

Are you ready to begin?

**PROLOGUE**

The Black Mesa Research Facility was the biggest of its kind, nestled inside a mountain in New Mexico. It carried out the top-security research for the US Government, including, recently, teleportation technology, using a Borderworld called Xen as a relay.

In the northeastern corner of the Mesa, Doctor Wallace Breen, the Facility's Administrator, sat and thought. In front of him was a large calendar, and current day was circled several times in red marker. He knew why, and was contemplating his plan of action for the day. It was 8 AM.

Picking up the phone next to him, he dialled a number.

"Hello," answered the cool female voice on the other end of the phone. "You have reached the headquarters of the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit."

Short, but self-explanatory.

NOW LOADING LEVEL 1: DAY ON THE JOB


	2. Day on the Job

The main difference from this chapter is that previously the entire beginning of it was just an explanation of the layout of the facility, which didn't go down well in the reviews, so that's gone.

**CHλPTER ONE**

**DλY ON THE JOB**

WELCOME TO BLACK MESA

That's what the sign next to the dirt road on the eastern approach to the Mesa said, and what Captain Louis Meck read as he drove the military truck towards it.

"Boom, headshot."

He snapped his head back right just in time to catch Sergeant Harris Wilson withdraw his hand from a bobble-head that had been glued to the dashboard. Meck sighed.

"Cut the crap, Wilson."

"Sorry, captain."

They'd already passed the outer Security barrier some time ago, and judging from the buildings in the distance they were shortly going to reach the inner one. Wilson studied these for a moment, then turned to his superior.

"What the hell are we doing out here, sir?"

Meck kept his eyes straight ahead. "We will receive orders when we reach our destination," he replied, levelly.

"Geez." Wilson turned back to face forwards. Then another thought occurred to him. "Sir, have you-"

"No."

"I was just wonderi-"

Meck's eyes narrowed. "Shut your hole, Wilson."

The truck drove past another sign.

NOW ENTERING AREA 10

Inside the security complex they were approaching, inside one of the dormitory rooms, the only sounds were snoring and the tapping of computer keys.

...considering your position at the current time, I find it unlikely that your request for upgraded security clearance is accepted; however, I will bring it up in the next scheduled meeting on the 19th.

His eyes read and reread this paragraph, and tagged on the end:

Should you disagree with this, I would advise you to contact Personal Concerns on ext 82689. Sincerely, Jason Bassant

"Finished," Jason muttered, sitting back.

TOPSIDE EASTERN SECURITY COMPLEX D

He rubbed his eyes and glanced at the time. 8:27 AM. He'd been typing, retyping and eventually restarting this goddamn letter for three hours. He sent it off to Doctor Bewn, closed the laptop down and closed his eyes to rest. It was going to be another routine day, he promised himself. Nothing will go wrong. Then maybe I'll get that promotion and get to see Kate sometime OUT of days off and lunch breaks.

Kate Hayge was another security guard, one that worked in Area 10. Jason had his post in Area 3. It was not unusual for personnel to fall in love over the course of their duty, but they had to make sure that it didn't get in the way of actually doing their job.

Jason opened his eyes and checked the time again. It was only 8:31. Most people would already be hard at work inside the depths of the Facility. He, however didn't start his shift until 8:45. It was good to be a Topside Security guard. Other people did the work through the night, giving the Topsiders, as they were known, plenty of sleep.

Deciding to start early for a change, he got up, carefully edging along between his bed and his roommate's, which was still occupied. Douglas Young always was a heavy sleeper. Shaking his head, Jason put his body armor on, then his helmet. His pistol, safety on, went into its holster by his side, should he ever need it. He had had no need of it so far, apart from inside the Hazard Course, but that was routine. He closed his eyes again. Routine. The whole job was routine. He looked at Douglas again, then he silently walked out the door and closed it behind him.

He felt as if he could make his way outside with his eyes closed, he had done it so many times. Left out of the room, few steps down the corridor, turn right, up the steps... he avoided the loose step that had gotten him every day of the week so far, and walked down the hall and down the staircase to the booth outside where he was stationed. The sun was shining, it looked like it had the prospects of becoming a nice day, for once. Opening the door of the security booth attracted the attention of his coworkers, Jenny Praign and Damian Rhode.

"Up early, eh, Jase?" Damian asked, turning back around to the station he was working at, as Jason punched his time card.

"Yeah, for once," Jason replied, putting the time card in his slot, walking over to the empty station and sitting down. "Just finished a looong letter to Doctor Bewn." He yawned.

The name triggered something in Jenny's head, and she turned to him. "What was it this time?"

Jason logged on to the station. "Security clearance, among other things."

"Hm." Jenny turned back to her monitor. "Wouldn't have thought he'd have the nerve after what happened last Friday."

"You're telling me," Jason chuckled, remembering all too well.

One of the unmanned stations beeped urgently, and Damian scooted over on his chair to combat the problem. He studied the screen for a moment.

"Military truck, 30 seconds out. Registration to follow."

As Damian read out the registration from the camera shot, Jenny searched for it in the Outer Security log.

"Captain Louis Meck and Sergeant Harris Wilson", she reported, as the truck pulled up to the barrier outside the booth and Damian got up to talk to the driver. "Level 2 Security Clearance, bound for Area 4."

The driver-side window wound down as Damian approached. "Good morning, sirs. Can I see your identification please?"

Meck handed over the two plastic security cards they'd been handed at the Outer Station. Damian studied them, then slotted them into a card reader mounted on the outside wall of the booth. Inside, Jason and Jenny watched as the computer processed and cleared both cards for Mesa Entry.

"All done. Have a nice day, sirs," Damian said, handing the cards back and waving to Jenny inside the booth, who hit the barrier button. With a slight grinding noise, said barrier rose and cleared the way for the two soldiers to get into the Facility. Meck put his foot down, and accelerated towards the Mesa's base.

"I wonder what they're here for," Jason mused, watching the truck disappear into the distance.

"Probably weapons testing again," Jenny guessed, also watching the truck before turning back once more to her station.

Jason watched until he couldn't see the truck any more, then turned back to his station. "As long as they don't blow the facility up."

* * *

ORIGINAL REVIEWS

PixieButt

You've got an instant thumbs up from me if you've got the balls to plunge yourself into the monster that is NaNoWriMo. Hopefully this means we'll have constant updates.

I'm glad you're throwing in new characters and a new subplot. As much as I love the original cast and story, it's great to have variety in novelizations.

I understand you're under a time pressure, but I found this chapter to be entirely drab. I skipped nearly all of the Area/Sector listings because I got bored. The chapter was short and not a whole lot happened. That's okay in theory, but it makes readers like myself happy to get more substance per chapter. Write out numbers (7 = seven).

Good luck with the project! It's a stressful undertaking, but *incredibly* rewarding in the end.

-Distorted Mirrors

Reply: I understand about the chapter sounding drab. The first part is mainly to introduce people not familiar with the Half Life Storyline or Black Mesa to them, and there wasn't much going on in the level after that. The actual Azure Sheep level continued after the disaster, but obviously I can't slide that in.

Fix: As you can read, the entire drab part has been kablooied.

NEXT LEVEL: LIVING QUARTERS OUTBOUND


	3. Living Quarters Outbound

I had to redesign a portion of the facility for this chapter.

**CHλPTER TWO**

**LIVING QUλRTERS OUTBOUND**

AREA 8 TOPSIDE DORMITORIES

Barney Calhoun woke up. For a moment he stared at a foggy green mist, which quickly turned into the plaster ceiling of his dormitory. He rolled his head to the side. 8:30. He needed to get up. He was due to report into Area 3 Security. That meant riding the express train in, this time. Had he got up earlier, say, fifteen minutes ago, he would have been able to get the regular, stopping train. It was likely in Sector G by now.

He got up and rubbed his head. He couldn't remember what he had been doing last night. He just hoped he wasn't out boozing. He checked the calendar. No, that's tomorrow. That couldn't be it. He searched into his mind. Eventually he found what he had been doing: the dreaded night shift. And he had got, what? A couple hours of sleep?

Tugging on his clothes (he wasn't a topsider, he didn't work topside therefore he didn't need armor above ground) he made his way out to the tram station, for the Area 8 topside dormitories. He turned around and studied the realtime information board. According to that, and if his watch was right – he checked it against the board – the train should be here. He peered up the line. Nothing. Not even a glint of metal.

Barney sat down on the bench, and sighed. Another express late. Sometimes he wondered how people kept to schedule. It was Transit's motto: "A train at every platform." It hardly seemed apt now, seeing how late it was, now five minutes late at 8:40 and there was nothing in sight. Apparently just to mock him a train headed for Area 1 stopped at the opposite platform.

At this time on any other day he'd be chatting to fellow security guard Reg Simmons. But an accident had occurred a few days prior; his 9mm pistol had misfired in its holster, putting a bullet straight through his foot, while he was on duty. He was in the infirmary in Sector E. Another sigh, and just to annoy him, all of the realtime boards buzzed angrily at him for a couple of seconds.

And a loud horn. A glance up the track revealed the express train bearing down on the platform. It honked again and slowed to a halt in front of Barney. The door hissed, stayed still for a moment then reluctantly opened. He boarded the train, and the door closed, slowly, behind him.

Without warning, he was jerked backwards as the train started up again. A hissing came from the train announcement system, then the familiar voice of Linda Pritchard from Transit Control.

"Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility personnel. The time is 8:42 AM. Current topside temperature is 91 degrees, with an estimated high of 105. The Black Mesa Compound is maintained at a pleasant 68 degrees at all times."

The train pulled into Bay #2 at the top of the North Transit Elevator, waited for another train going in the opposite direction to clear the line, and descended.

"This is a Sector B Line train inbound from Area 1, calling at Sector B Research Laboratories, the Area 9 Transit Hub, Area 2 Satellite Operations and the B4 Power Generation Station."

So it was a straight-line train; he'd have to change at Area 9. With a clank, the train clamped itself to the rail at the bottom of the elevator, and set off horizontally again, passing a large ventilation fan in the right-hand wall of the tunnel.

"Generation station... Oh, ha ha, very funny," muttered Barney, watching a scientist encourage another security guard to try and win an arcade game in a launderette, on the other side of the track. The train passed another corner to one of the many 'airlocks' (as they were dubbed by the personnel) which opened as the train approached. The train proceeded through it, waited until the 'airlock' was closed again, and started off again.

Nobody was at the Sector B Research Lab station, but regardless the train stopped and the door opened. Barney considered making a run for the vending machine on the other side of the platform, as he was practically running on empty, but that thought was stopped by the door closing once again and the train resuming its progress.

Around another corner was a cafeteria, with scientists discussing something about a 'new sample', and others eating their breakfast. It seemed impossible to Barney how they managed to get in so early. It would be, well, was impossible for him... and all that food was making his stomach growl. Around another corner – he wondered how many there were in the Transit System – the train stopped as a bridge unfolded in front of him. A scientist walked across, glanced at him, then retracted the bridge. The train started off again, passing a laboratory, then around another corner. The Area 9 Transit Hub appeared in front of him.

The early train would turn off to the left there and proceed onto the tram elevator that would carry it all the way down to the Sector C Line. However, since he was running late, his train continued past the junction and stopped at the platform just beyond it. Barney stepped out when the door opened, and wondered briefly whether he should take the elevator or the stairs. He took the stairs.

Passing the Sector E Line's level, he noted that an unusually large group of scientists were milling about on the eastbound platform. He wondered whether there was something going on in the Command Complex in Area 4 briefly, as he continued down to the Sector C Line.

At the bottom, Barney started sprinting for the train that was on the platform, and threw himself inside it just as the door closed. He lay on the floor for a moment, the train starting up, catching his breath, before climbing to his feet and noting that his train was holding up another which couldn't move until his cleared the points. Somebody else was going to be late for work today.

"This is an inbound security train from Sector A," Linda informed him from the train's speakers. "Calling at Area 3 Security, Sector D Complex 1, Sector B Railyards and Area 10."

At least it would stop at his station. Something caught his eye ahead; it was a flickering tunnel light on the roof, one which he'd reported to maintenance a week or so ago. They still hadn't fixed it. And as his train passed under the light fitting, it burst, sending glass all over his train's roof. He flinched. Things weren't right today.

Passing the station for the Area 3 Topside Dormitories, he saw a figure running through the observation area. Barney hated people running through passages. They were all too prone to tripping over something and making a huge mess. But he ignored it. The second train stopped at the third platform there, as his train slowed down for the Area 3 Security station.

Somewhere else entirely, a figure opened his laptop and pulled up a file.

_SUBJECT_

_EDUCATION_

_2 years Martinson College Undecided Major_

_EMPLOYER_

_Black Mesa Research Facility_

_POSITION_

_Security Officer_

_ASSIGNMENT_

_Area 3 Security_

_CLEARANCE_

_Level 3_

_DISASTER RESPONSE PRIORITY_

_Preservation of facility equipment and materials_

_SECONDARY PRIORITY_

_Welfare of Research Personnel_

_LOW PRIORITY_

_Personal Safety

* * *

_

Not all the chapters will be this short. They get longer. Trust me.

ORIGINAL REVIEWS

James Beston

A good start. Though his lines were few, you seem to capture Calhoun's sarcasm accurately. Will you give Gordon and/or Shepard dialogue? Either way you've piqued my interest.

Reply: Yeah, Gordon and Adrian'll have dialogue. Where would the story go _without _them speaking? I'm obviously not going to have one of them going up to a scientist/grunt and say "Character pressed E", am I :D

NEXT LEVEL: BLACK MESA INBOUND


	4. Black Mesa Inbound

We finally get introduced to Gordon in this chapter, whereas last time we saw him briefly in Day on the Job.

**CHλPTER THREE**

**BLλCK MESλ INBOUND**

AREA 3  
SOMEWHERE NEAR THE AREA 3 DORMITORIES STATION

Gordan Freeman was having a bad day. First of all, he'd been hung over because of the drinks he'd had last night with some friends celebrating the success of an experiment. Next, his alarm hadn't gone off. Now, he was running through the corridors of Area 3 with a single thought running through his mind.

'Oshitoshitoshiti'mgonnabelaaaate...' his mind yelled at him, as he skidded around a corner and nearly knocked a cleaning trolley over. He didn't know when the next train was due, he didn't know what time it was, and at that current moment he didn't know whether he still had a job.

Another turn took him to the observation deck for the Area 3 Dormitories station, of which there were four platforms, two through, two bays; and a train had just passed though, going in the right direction. Great. Still, he continued running, down the steps and through the double doors. Another train pulled up... on the opposite platform. Panicking, Gordon took the steps of the overbridge three at a time, hurled himself down on the other side and jumped into the train. The door closed behind him... and the train didn't move.

Ahead of him, in the distance, he could see another train stopped at Area 3 Security. A security guard was disembarking. _Oh, hurry up hurry up hurry up..._ thought Gordon, his mind racing to what would happen if he turned up late. Perhaps he'd be fired. Perhaps they'd get someone else to do it. Whatever it was, he _wanted _to do that experiment. Maybe it was the prospect of a new sample, but all it was to do was analyze a rock. A crystal. It was routine.

Gordon _liked _routine.

The train started off with a jerk. He fell over backwards, rubbed his head, and got back up again. The recorded voice started coming out of the speaker. He listened to it every day. He'd been told the name of the woman who recorded it, but he couldn't remember it. He wasn't very good with names.

"Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility personnel."

The train passed Area 3 Security, where the guard that had been getting off the train that was holding him up. He wasn't wearing any armor, and he was fumbling for an ID card. The guard turned to look at Gordon. He must have seen that Gordon wasn't wearing a tie, because the guard made a motion of doing a tie up. Gordon simply made motions of putting a helmet on. The guard scowled and turned his attention back to finding his ID card as Gordon disappeared around the corner. Gordon meanwhile wondered if he knew the guard. He did look vaguely familiar, but then again, he was still slightly hung over.

"The time is 8:47 AM."

Gordon started panicking. He was now 17 minutes late. The train entered a large chamber, part of Sector D. On the platform he was now passing, a maintenance guy was patching up a hole in the platform grating. Apparently he was amusing the rat that was sitting there watching him. Rats. They didn't turn up often, which was thankful. There must have been somewhere where they could hide away from everyone.

Below him, on... what was it? The Sector G Line? Or was it Sector D? The Facility was too big to comprehend in one go, plus the fact that he was still slightly hung over didn't help. A train passed on that line, driving straight past the waiting science personnel. An announcement above the recorded train one announced (as it was wont to do) that there was a radiation leak near Sector C.

"Current topside temperature is 93 degrees, with an estimated high of 105. The Black Mesa Compound is maintained at a pleasant 68 degrees at all times."

The train left the large chamber and turned a right turn into another tunnel.

"This is a Sector C Line train inbound from Area 9, calling at Area 3 Engineering, Sector B Worldwide Operations, Sector B Railyards, Sector C Anomalous Materials, the C7 Power Generation Station, and Area 10, where this train will transfer to the Sector A Line."

Gordon breathed a sigh of relief. At least it would stop at his station. He didn't want to have to ride all the way to the Sector A line at Area 10, then catch a train back.

His train entered a kind of warehouse, where some electrical equipment was being used on his left. A crane moved a crate across the path of his train, and when it was cleared, the train moved on.

In between this warehouse and the second one he knew the line passed into, his train stopped at Area 3 Engineering, where there was nobody at the platform (Gordon wished they'd make it so that it didn't stop at stations where they weren't needed), and then passed the junction where trains could divert off right into the Sector C Line depot.

Gordon's train now entered the second warehouse, this time housing a lot of crates. A guy in a forklift drove below him.

The train turned right at the end of the warehouse, and proceeded to a transit lift that would take him down to Level 4. There were more of these to go – Anomalous Materials was on Level 8.

"Due to the high toxicity of materials routinely handled in the Black Mesa Compound, no smoking, eating or drinking are permitted within the Black Mesa Transit System."

Upon reaching the bottom, Gordon had to wait for another train to clear onto the sidings before he could continue (agonising about his job the whole time) and enter a long tunnel.

"Please keep your limbs inside the train at all times. Do not attempt to open the doors, until the train has come to a complete halt at the station platform. In the event of an emergency, passengers are to remain seated and await further instruction."

The train had switched to overhead rails now, and down below a helicopter was landing on a helipad. A scientist and a guard jumped out. The scientist turned back to wave at the helicopter.

"If it is necessary to exit the train, disabled personnel are to be evacuated first. Please, stay away from electrified rails, and proceed to an emergency station until assistance arrives. In the case of an accident, please report it to the Transit Authority by using the phone at any station."

The train had gone into another tunnel. Gates opened up in front of it, and the train moved into one of the so-called 'airlocks'. The train started descending, until it reached one of the circular 'airlock' doors. These doors opened, and a rail slid through, allowing the train to move through. Once the train had gone through, the rail slid back, and the airlock doors closed. Gordon was now in total darkness.

Then the lights snapped on, revealing the circular passage the train was in.

In the other place, the figure started typing a new file.

_NAME_

_Gordan Freeman_

_Male, Age 27_

"A reminder that the Black Mesa Hazard Course Decathlon will commence this evening, at 1900 hours and not 1800, due to a transit signal failure..."

_EDUCATION_

_Ph.D., MiT, Theoretical Physics_

"...in Training Facility C."

Gordon had come close to winning the Decathlon last year, but had decided to give it a miss this year just because of how he felt now.

_POSITION_

_Research Associate_

The train rounded the corner and through another airlock.

"The semi-finals for high-security personnel will be announced in a separate secure access transmission."

_ASSIGNMENT_

_Anomalous Materials Laboratory_

"Remember, more lives than your own may depend on your fitness."

_CLEARANCE_

_Level 3_

The train pulled up to the Sector B Worldwide Operations station, where the only signs of life were a scientist waiting at the opposite platform and the maintenance crew working on the main door into the Operations Centre. When the train seemed satisfied as to its wait, it started up again.

_ADMINISTRATIVE SPONSOR_

_Classified_

"Do you have a friend or relative who would make a valuable addition to the Black Mesa team?"

_DISASTER RESPONSE PRIORITY_

_Discretionary_

"Immediate openings are available in the areas of Materials Handling and Low-Clearance Security."

The train moved into an open area. A robotic machine on four spindly looking legs carried a crate over to a pile in a corner, while a door opened and let a ground train with large crates pass in front of Gordon's train.

"Please contact Black Mesa Personnel for further information. If you have an associate with a background in the areas of Theoretical Physics..."

The barriers on the ground started to close as the ground train pulled clear.

"...Biotechnology, or other high-tech disciplines, please contact our civilian recruitment division."

An airlock door opened and the tram went through, the overhead track sparking. The airlock shut behind him.

"The Black Mesa Research Facility is an equal opportunity employer."

Gordon told the announcement to shut up. A few seconds later the train started up again and started descending down a shaft.

"A reminder to all Black Mesa Personnel. Regular radiation and biohazard screenings are a requirement of continued employment in the Black Mesa Research Facility."

Upon reaching the lower level, the train approached the Sector B Railyards station, where there appeared to be a throng of scientists on the platform for the Sector G Line.

"Missing a scheduled urinalysis or radiation checkup is grounds for immediate termination."

Stopping at the station, Gordon could see that something must be wrong with the line, for there was a train sitting stationary just outside the station with its lights off. What drew his attention, however, was the man in the blue suit stood in the train, against all the white lab coats, folding up a laptop. As he did so, he glanced up, and his eyes met Gordon's for a moment before he returned to what he was doing, and Gordon's train left the station.

"If you feel you have been exposed to radioactive or other hazardous materials in the course of your duties..."

In the next chamber there was a green glow on the floor, and he peered out of the window at the radioactive spillage below. It was all so ironic. The train entered another tunnel, and turned a corner.

"...contact your radiation safety officer immediately. Work safe. Work _smart_. Your future depends on it."

That had something eerie to it. As if the person saying the announcement didn't think they were smart. His thoughts were then drowned out by the next announcement.

"Now arriving at Sector C Anomalous Materials."

Gordon stood up and looked down the walkway at another so-called airlock – but this time for walking through. A security officer looked up from a newspaper, folded it and walked down the platform.

"Please stand back from the automated door, and wait for the security officer to verify your identity. Before exiting the train, be sure to check for personal belongings. Thank you, and have a very safe and productive day."

The guard had reached the train. It was Robert. It always was.

"Good morning, Mister Freeman," he said, moving over to the door controls. Gordon rolled his eyes. He hated it when he was called 'Mister'. His title was 'Doctor'.

Robert finished tapping in the security code, and the door opened. "Looks like you're running late," he commented, checking his watch. He started off down the platform. Gordon caught him up.

"How're things in there today, Rob?" he questioned.

"Same old," Robert replied, moving for the airlock controls. "Computer crashed again."

_Oh, ye gods,_ thought Gordon, shoving his ID card into the nearby reader. _More system crashes. Just my luck._

The airlock opened, and Gordon retrieved his ID card and stepped inside. He gave Robert the thumbs up, and the doors closed behind him.

AREA 4 ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE

"He's arrived at Sector C."

Wallace Breen sat back upright. "About damn time. This experiment was supposed to take place half an hour ago!" He leant back into his chair again. "At least he's actually there. If the sample had actually been ready I would have had to fire him."

"Do you want me to ring the HECU again?"

"No need. They're already on the perimeter. The second that experiment is underway they'll be in."

"Ok, sir. And should I get your private helicopter ready?"

* * *

Breen has plans. Indeed.

No original reviews for this chapter.

NEXT LEVEL: INSECURITY


	5. Insecurity

**CHλPTER FOUR**

**INSECURITY**

AREA 3 SECURITY  
TRANSIT SYSTEM ENTRANCE

As soon as Barney got off the train, it started off again. Headed for the maintenance depot in Sector E, no doubt. To the loop. As he fumbled for his ID card to get through the door, the rumbling of a train could be heard, and he turned around to see a haggard, tie-less scientist glaring at him. It was Gordon Freeman, somebody Barney considered a friend at the best of times, and whom he owed a beer. He made an impression of doing a tie up. Gordon made an impression of putting a helmet on.

He finally found his ID card, pushed it into the scanner, lifted it, and walked through the door... and into it. The door made a rude noise. Barney was startled. For one, he'd never broken his nose on it, and two, it normally opened. There was a fumbling noise on the other side of the door. He whacked the door, hoping to get some attention, inserting his ID card multiple times.

There came a familiar voice from the other side.

"Hold on a minute, the door's not responding to your pass ID," said the voice of Alan West, another guard. "Let me see if I can get it open on this side." There was the sound of buttons being pressed.

"How are things today, Alan?" Barney yelled through the door. It made another rude noise before Alan yelled back, "Not very good!"

The door made another rude noise. Barney whacked it for good measure.

"I think we had a computer crash about five minutes ago," Alan's muffled voice said, from the other side of the door. "It took out nearly everything."

Barney inserted his ID card more times in an effort to help.

"OK, I think I've got it..." muttered Alan. The door binged, slammed open, and quickly slammed shut again after Barney stepped through.

"Sorry about that, Barney," Alan said, moving over to the control panel for the doors on the other side. "We've been having problems all over the facility this morning. System crashes, security malfunctions, it's a wonder this whole place hasn't shut down yet."

"It's hardly success, is it?" murmured Barney, referring to the poster on the wall that displayed two scientists shaking hands. Alan rolled his eyes.

"Only the in the eyes of the Administrator," he commented, and the doors to Area 3 Security opened. Barney walked through, and instead of going down the stairs, walked into the refreshment area. He direly needed breakfast. He grabbed some loose change from his pocket, put it into the machine, pressed the button for a ham sandwich, and when it didn't work, he whacked it.

Downstairs, there was quite a bit of hustle and bustle going on. But Barney had work to do, so he went to check in at the desk. The guard on duty looked up. Barney didn't recognise him.

"Nice of you to show up this morning, Calhoun," the guard said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, logging Barney into the system. Barney was just about to say his excuse when the duty guy cut him off. "Yeah, yeah, problems with the access system. Hope you're ready for a loooong shift."

"Yeah, sure, sir. Want me to make a big deal of it?" Barney commented, equally sarcastic. The duty guard simply glared at him, so he went down the corridor to the locker room. Someone else was there tying a shoe lace and failing miserably. Barney ignored him.

Picking up his armor and helmet, Barney strapped them on. He still needed his sidearm. Next stop, target range. Maybe he could get a few shots in the range.

Passing through the lobby again, his ear was caught by an argument at the helpdesk. A scientist and a guard were arguing. The scientist was winning, by the sounds of it.

"I can't access my files," he was complaining, "I can't answer my mail, I haven't even been able to get _into my office!_"

"I know, sir, I know, we're doing everything we can to get the problem under control," reassured the guard. "Just give us some time to-"

"Time?!" interrupted the scientist. "I don't have any more time! If I'm not able to get my report to the administrator in the next hour, then my job will be in serious jeopardy! And I'll make sure that mine is _not _the only one."

With that, the scientist strode off toward the stairs. Barney raised his eyebrows, then walked in the opposite direction to the elevator. He was going up. On the way there, the PA bonged.

"Doctor Freeman please report to the Anomalous Materials laboratory _immediately_," it boomed. Barney pondered this as the elevator took him up a level. Gordon was normally never late. If it was urgent enough for them to use the announcement system, his job was probably on the line.

But then he discarded that thought as the elevator made his way to the armory. Through some double doors, round a corner and down a ramp, he came face to face with another security guard. He was intently studying a book. Behind him was a rack of shotguns. Barney cleared his throat.

The guard looked up, blinked.

"How's it going?" he asked, a little blearily. He started groping for a pistol under the desk.

"Late night?" Barney suggested.

"Yeah..." the guard said, finding a pistol. "Had some beer with a few scientist pals. I woke up on the floor. Here you go, Calhoun."

Barney picked up the pistol, clicked the safety on, and glanced at the target range.

"I know you're not on the schedule for a couple more days, but if you want to squeeze off a few shots in the range there's plenty of room."

There were, in fact, two booths being used, but only one of them was being used for practicing. In the other, Otis 'Lardball' Woodrow was enjoying a box of doughnuts. Completely typical. Barney did what he'd done the last couple of times he was there, and sneaked the clips off of the wooden shelves. An extra four clips. Useful.

Back down to the lobby, Barney was just heading for the refreshments area again with the prospects of shooting the vending machine to make it work, when the guard on duty at the desk groaned loudly.

"Uh oh, now what?" he complained, tapping a few keys to bring a pager message up on his computer screen. "Looks like some people are having some problems with the main access lift in Sector G. Why don't you go over there and see what you can do?"

It took Barney a moment to realize that this last comment had been directed at him.

"Yes, sir."

Sector G was the last place he wanted to be at that point in time. Last time he was there an unstable platform had tipped him unceremoniously into the sludge of one of the canals. But orders were orders. He climbed back up to the middle level, and walked along the passage, past the exit to the Transit System to the security door to the High Energy Particle Labs. The guard on duty checked him up and down to make sure his armor was on correctly (it was), and seemed satisfied.

"Have a good one, Calhoun."

Barney only just resisted the urge to complain to him that he would hardly have 'a good one' in Sector G. He just hoped the problem with the lift was one of those simple ones, like a blown fuse or a rewire gone wrong. He didn't want to have to stay there for very long.

He strode around the platform on the lower level of the lab. He peered over the railing. It was a long way down to the bottom. He shuddered and continued up some stairs. At the top he came across two scientists and another security guard, who were in the act of trying to fix a computer console. Barney crouched down to have a look.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked the guard of the scientist not under the console.

"Perhaps," came the reply. There was a moment's silence. Then, the one under the console spoke.

"All _right._"

"Yees?" questioned the standing scientist, raising an eyebrow.

The scientist under the console fiddled with something. "This should help."

There was a loud rushing noise, a clang, and a few bouts of loud noises issued from the speakers.

"That doesn't sound right," commented Barney, cocking his head. The standing scientist moved forward.

"Let me help you," he offered, rubbing his nose.

"Ok..." muttered the other scientist, looking out from under the console, "If you know what you're doing..."

"Of course..." said his companion, bending over the console in question. "Theoretically." Barney stood up and stepped backwards.

There was a few more moments as that scientist tapped in a few commands. Then he sneezed on the keyboard. An acrid smell filled the air.

"Can you smell something burning?" asked Barney, standing well back.

The other guard looked at him. "I can't really tell."

The sneezer appeared to have reached a decision. "Right. Let's try this," he said, typing in another command and pressing the enter key.

The terminal exploded. The scientist under it screamed, and everyone nearby hurried over to help. The guy under the terminal coughed. At least he was still alive. A rush to the infirmary would not help things.

"Whoa, that was close," commented the guard. It was all there was to say. The scientist under the terminal examined the wiring again.

"Oh, no..." he muttered, peering at them closely. He then ducked under the open panel and glared at his companion scientist. "Well, Stevenson? Have you any idea what to do next?"

All Dr Stevenson could do was shake his head. "I couldn't even venture a guess."

Barney stood there, watching as they started cleaning the mess up, then remembered Sector G, damn the rotten place. He jogged around the maze of platforms that made up the H-E Particle Labs, (at one point hearing another scientist ask who was responsible for the mess in the distance, and Dr Stevenson telling his colleague to not look at him) pushed through the double doors marked 'Transit System' and walked down the passage to the platform.

Contrary to the three or four people he'd seen down there the previous times he'd come down, there was a throng of scientists waiting on the platform, all milling about wearing annoyed expressions.

One turned as Barney approached.

"If you're waiting for a tram to Sector G," he told Barney, "then you're probably better off walking it. I overheard someone say that all the trams on this end of the facility are having... _problems._"

The way he said it made Barney shudder. Still, he had to get to the Access Lift. And if the only way there was by walking through the maintenance tunnels, then fine. But, just to check up on the guy's rumor, he grabbed the nearby service phone.

"Hello, this is Drew, you have reached Transit Control, how can I help?"

"I just want someone to confirm that trams on the Sector G end of the facility aren't running."

"Yep, you got that right, the Sector G line's out, we haven't even got the information to the realtime boards yet because of the system crash we had earlier. We are working on the problem."

"Ok... thank you..." Barney hung up, raised his eyebrows, shrugged, and slid down the maintenance access ladder nearby. The space under the platform had all sorts of junk in it. It was so full that he had to wade through it to get to the door. Upon pushing the door open, a small river of junk cascaded through the space. Barney was carried with it until it stopped a few feet inside the room.

_Geez,_ he thought, descending some stairs, moving forward and stepping through a door to flip a breaker on, _this whole place is going to end up smelling like Sector G. I hate Sector G. It's like the bowels of the complex. Strike that, it is the bowels of the complex._

He was now making his way through a long curved passage. A few seconds ago, he had flipped the lights on. He didn't fancy walking to Sector G in the dark. Sector G in the dark was the sort of thing to give you nightmares. He climbed up a ladder in the next room, then walked along a passage to another door.

The aforementioned door led him out onto a platform on the side of a canal. Thankfully, this was a section that had been grated, to prevent anyone from 'accidentally' falling into the canal. He pressed the button to lower the bridge across the Transit Rail.

"Bridge controls disabled," an automated voice said. "Train approaching."

For a moment, Barney stared at it, wondering why the trams were suddenly active again, before remembering that this wasn't the Sector G Line, it was the Sector D. So he wasn't surprised when the tram carrying the man in the blue suit passed through, allowing the bridge to lower. As he pressed the button, there was a grinding noise and a lot of sparks from above him (making him flinch) before the bridge reluctantly lowered, and the gates raised.

He crossed, went up some more stairs and emerged from onto the platform for the Sector G access lift, which was filled with more scientists. Down the hall he went, and to fix the damned access elevator, passing more bored scientists drawing on a portable whiteboard, leaving wet footprints in the carpet behind him.

* * *

Barney's where he needs to be for the future events now.

ORIGINAL REVIEWS

James Beston  
Lol, I imagine "Character pressed E" would be a bit odd. Sorry it took me so long to review, I've been absent from for a few days. Keep em coming.

Reply: On their way.

PixieButt  
Interesting. I'm glad that you've decided to do things that differ from many other novelizations found around here, whether it was intentional or not.

A few things I should point out:

Be careful of unnecessary beats. For instance:

"Ok..." muttered the other scientist. "If you know what you're doing..." he sounded doubtful.

You can leave out "he sounded doubtful" because the reader already knows; the elipses and the fact that he's muttering show us enough.

Avoid normal dialogue, such as this:

"Yes, um... ok," Barney said

While it's realistic, it makes you look lazy and there's not a whole lot of entertainment going on there. You want to keep your readers from zoning out. Cut out the thing that don't contribute anything or spice them up a bit to be unique. Dialogue conveys personality, and your characters can't afford to be dull.

Keep posting and I'll keep reading. :)

-Distorted Mirrors

Reply: Noted, and changed for next revision.

Spymaster E  
Weren't Barney and Gordon friends. Something about that was revealed in HL2 or Episode One.

Reply: Now that I've actually played HL2, I know that. The current upload of Insecurity is full of holes right now. I'm not going to change Black Mesa Inbound because I'm making it out that Gordon's too hung over to figure out it's Barney.

((At the time when I first wrote this, I didn't have HL2 and so didn't know that Gordon knew Barney.))

The One Free Man  
I thought it was great, but I skipped some of Calhoun's parts. I am writing the story of Half Life 2. Read it so far and tell me what you think. I am only on the first chapter.

Reply: Looks interesting. But Barney's parts will be an active part in the story, so they'll have to be read in the long run.

NEXT LEVEL: REALTIME


	6. Realtime

Realtime is the first chapter in Transit, which is my own made up 'mod' if you like. Its main focus is the one part of Black Mesa that ties all of the other parts together – the Transit System.

**CHλPTER FIVE**

**REλLTIME**

SECTOR E TRANSIT LINE TUNNEL  
BETWEEN AREA 7 AND SECTOR E

While Barney Calhoun entering the system on its north side, another passenger was entering it from the west. This particular tram was running "...inbound, from Area 6 Topside Dormitories, calling at Area 6 Personnel Entrance, Area 7 Recreation North, the Sector E Biodome, and Sector E Transit Control. Due to the high..."

By now, William Pilcher had learnt to tune these out. It helped that he had to listen to Linda when she wasn't a recording every day of the week, let alone recorded train announcements. William worked in Transit Control. In their eyes (that is, him, Linda, and the rest of the TC team) it was the best place to be, because they didn't have to do any work _as such._ They still had to report the occasional crash, and shut down the traction current where maintenance work was going on, but other than that they could pretty much relax.

Speaking of the team...

"Pilcher!" a voice boomed over the tram's announcement system, drowning out Linda's recording. This clearly wasn't one. William jumped.

"Where the hell have you been?!" it yelled at him.

William moved into range of the video camera. "Not my fault," he declared to it, crossing his arms. "The securi-"

"I don't care if the security system failed or not!" boomed the announcer.

"Brendan..."

"Oh, what the hell. You're almost there, so pick up a package the Biodome staff apparently has for us."

William raised his eyebrows, and checked his watch. "I've got to report to the security booth in _ten minutes_ before they lock all other IDs out and you send me to get a package?!"

"Then hurry up then," sneered Brendan.

The train slowed down to the platform. William suddenly realized that the scientists with the package stood outside the main entrance to the complex. And that was across a bridge. Crap. A bridge run. Not good.

He raced to the door of the tram, and whacked it. "Standby, standby, standby, standby..." he said to himself. The tram stopped.

"And... doors!"

The door hissed open.

"Go!"

William raced across the platform, up the stairs, across the tracks and down the other side to the complex entrance. The scientists gave him the package with a warning that it was fragile. Too bad. Its weight seemed very familiar though.

He leapt aboard his train just as the door shut again. And absolutely removed to move.

"Nooo..." he moaned to himself, and flipped up the control panel at the front. He rapidly pressed the tram's restart button. The train made some grindnig noises and started to move off again. He checked his watch. The whole thing had taken three minutes. It took about three minutes to get from here to TC... and a further four to get to security. By then it would be too late. He'd have to take a shortcut.

"Whoever's watching the cams right now;" he declared to the camera, "I'm leaving the package on board. I've got an officer to catch."

Then the train emerged into Silo F. This was where the Sector A, D, E, and F lines converged. But right now, William didn't have time to go into details, because the door was opening. He raced out of it, along the platform, towards the stairs. No time to take the lift. As he passed its doors they opened and Brendan ran out towards the train he'd just left.

Upstairs, he took his chance. Instead of taking the long way around, he kicked out the grate off a vent near the floor, and started crawling through that. A mere 20 seconds later (which would have taken him a minute round the long way) he was running out into the cafeteria. He decided to skip the lift. It was going down, and there wasn't much time.

He landed upon the tiling with a thump. His left leg now hurt like anything, but he needed to get to the security booth. A nearby scientist rushed for one of the emergency medkits hanging on the wall, having been one of the few that actually witnessed him vault over the railing and drop, but William was already gone through the security door. The barrier on the ID recognition booth was closing. He thrust his hand with ID card underneath it. The barrier paused.

"William Pilcher, huh?" came a skeptical sounding voice from the other side. "Looks like you're running late."

"Yeah..." panted William, out of breath.

"Looks like you got here just in time."

"Yeah..." repeated William, leaning his head against the wall. The scientist from earlier appeared behind him, and spread out the contents of the first aid kit on the floor in order to better treat William's leg, and was halfway through doing so when a figure appeared in the doorway to the cafeteria. William gave it a cursory glance.

"Titch?" it asked, cocking its head.

William's head shot round, and gave the figure a closer look.

"Just don't try that again, Ok?"

"Yeah, sure, Linda..."

"I don't want my staff getting dragged off to the infirmary because they took a daredevil leap off of the cafeteria balcony."

Typical Linda Pritchard.

"Any problems?" asked William, watching the scientist bandage his leg.

"We've got a derailment in the Area 10 sidings..." remembered Linda, ticking it off on her fingers. "We've got a suspected signal failure at Hazard Junction, which is delaying the Decathlon by another hour. Plus somebody reported that the track just outside Area 4 gives an unusually bumpy ride."

William groaned. "Not again... I thought we fixed those signals?"

Linda shook her head. "Apparently not. Everything's going... weird this morning. I can't tell what it is. We had a massive system failure about 5 minutes ago, we're still trying to reconnect to all the realtime boards."

Five minutes later, they were stood in the Transit Control booth, which was filled with personnel attempting to return the authority systems to normal following the crash. Looking out the glass that faced Transit Junction. Trains were moving regularly, as expected. It was impressive, by all standards.

"Uhh... ma'am?" asked a voice from behind them. It came from Travis O'Connor, reportedly the youngest person who actually worked in Black Mesa, only 19, sitting at his station, staring at something. "I think you'd better take a look at this."

Linda jogged over. The screen displayed all locations where traction current, the power in the rails, was running. The Sector G line was running dark. In other words, it wasn't running at all.

"You've _got _to be joking..." she moaned.

"Nope..." Travis' worried face looked back at the screen. "It just suddenly... snapped off. We've no maintenance teams down there or anything." He scooted over to another terminal and brought up the feeds from security cameras, all showing the same thing – trains that should be moving, some with passengers, standing still.

Linda grabbed the red phone from it's hook. "We do now," she said, determined, and dispatched a maintenance unit to the Sector G line. She then turned around, her work voice kicked into gear, and the whole room seemed to come alive. "Larry, get this on the realtimes ASAP: The Sector G Line is currently shut down for maintenance, no estimates as to when it'll be back up, got it?"

"As soon as we reestablish a connection to them," Larry replied from across the room. "Given how far we are at the moment, 10, 20 minutes, if no more crashes happen."

"Worst case scenario?"

"We have to reset the realtime boards. Every single one, on site. We shouldn't see that happening though."

"Good." Linda turned around. "Harvey, Beth, get out to Power Control, see if any generators failed."

Two other people on the other side of the room nodded and left.

"Nat, administration is going to be on our arse soon, I need a report written up before they call. Find Kenny if you have to."

"Marvin, Stacey, Matt, meet me downstairs in two."

"Jeremy, Garreth, Drew, Sandy, I want you all with Paul and Xavier in the phone room, there are probably going to be a lot of angry calls because of missed trains."

"Ollie, nip over to Sector D and tell the guys working on the northbound that we've got something of higher priority going on here."

Linda strode over to the intercom phone by the door, which was used for making announcements throughout Transit Control; the control room itself, the cafeteria, the phone room, everywhere.

"Ok, people, listen up!" she said into it, and the whole room went quiet. "We've got a lot going wrong today, but we are going to fix it. This is what we get paid for, people, now let's do it!"

Putting down the phone, she grabbed a hard hat from the rack next to it and opened the door.

"W-where are you going?" asked William, watching her exit.

"I'm going to look at these signals. Wish me luck."

"But who's going to run the-"

"I'm sure you're perfectly capable, Titch."

"Bu-"

But Linda was already gone. William peered out the window and saw her descend to a train waiting on the Sector A line platform where she boarded along with Marvin, Matt and Stacey. William sat down in Linda's chair.

"She won't like that," Travis told him. William ignored him, and started spinning idly on the chair.

The intercom on Linda's desk buzzed, before permitting Xavier to speak through it.

"Will?"

Ignoring the look on Travis' face, William leaned over and pressed the button on the intercom. "Go ahead, Xav."

"The Sector G Maintenance team want to speak to you."

The phone on the desk next to the intercom started ringing, and he picked it up. "Go ahead, guys."

The line wasn't very good quality; in fact, it sounded horrendous. He could hardly make out what the maintenance team were saying, let alone reply. And to top it off, before he could even assume what they said, the line cut off. He tossed Travis a pen.

"Travis, note this down on the maintenance logs – get all maintenance team communication equipment checked."

Travis frowned, but still doing as he was told.

"Well, lookie who managed to make it in. _And _he's sitting in the boss-woman's chair."

William spun around.

"Brendan Waters. How nice of you to drop in," William said dryly. Brendan laughed.

"And he's even _talking _like the boss-woman!"

"C'mon, Brendan, you know she doesn't like being called that..." said Travis cautiously.

"So, what was in your 'package'?" William asked, even though he probably knew the answer already. Brendan obliged his theory by extracting half a packet of biscuits from his pocket, picking one out and eating it whilst still giving William a smarmy look.

"You can be of some use, after all," he said between chews.

The phone rang. Without taking his eyes off Brendan, William picked it up.

"Hello, this is Pilcher, who's calling?"

"Titch, there's no need to sound so official. It's only temporary."

Brendan snorted.

"And it ends right now."

This brought out a bit of shock. William was stunned that he didn't even get to sit down for ten minutes.

"I need you, Travis, David and Lucy down here _now._ Tell Dennis to take the seat, but warn him not to do any animal impressions to try and scare people again," Linda informed them. "I've got a A-zero-one-zero coming around from Area 10. It's just finished the Sector C line."

"Got it," answered William, put down the phone, and stood up. He ignored Brendan, grabbed Travis's shirt and dragged him across the room to the exit. Glancing around the room for Dennis, he picked up the intercom phone that had speakers both in that room and in the cafeteria.

"Attention, please," he said into it. The room went silent. "David Jordan and Lucy Hills, please report to the Sector A northbound platform within the next two minutes. Dennis Miller, please report to Central Transit Control immediately."

A few moments later, the door slid open, and Dennis strolled through.

"You rang?" he said in a false posh voice.

"Give it a break Dennis, Linda wants you in the seat. And she knows about the animal noises."

Dennis paled, and dropped the posh voice. "She knows?!"

Travis nodded. "She must've heard you. When you were doing it to that poor official who wanted to know why his train was stuck."

Dennis gulped and started powerwalking towards the seat. William raised his eyebrows and opened the door. A minute or so later, they were on their way down the elevator to the Sector A northbound platform. David and Lucy were there already. The train, however, wasn't.

William was just opening his mouth to comment on this when A010 appeared from the southbound tunnel. It slowed, stopped, and the door hissed open.

"Why didn't she bring us in the first place?" mused David, sitting down.

The door hissed shut again. "She probably didn't think it was that bad," suggested Lucy.

The train proceeded into the darkness of the westbound tunnel.

* * *

ORIGINAL REVIEWS

Fatalcrash

Nice story. I like the [witty] dialogue between the characters.

Pretty ironic how everything in Black Mesa ** up despite such harsh rules. Getting fired for being fifteen minutes late. Poor Gordon.

Look forward to reading more!

((No reply was made at the time, but I'll make it now))

Reply: Well, it's a very important experiment. If someone was fifteen minutes late (or indeed thirty as it is when he gets there) in a real life situation, I think the funders would be preeetty annoyed.

NEXT LEVEL: ANOMALOUS MATERIALS


	7. Anomalous Materials

**CHλPTER SIX**

**λNOMλLOUS MλTERIλLS**

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS

There was a clang as the far side of the airlock started opening. Gordon checked his watch. That made it about a minute. They were slowing down. He jogged out into the Anomalous Materials lobby, up to the desk. A scientist was peering at the duty guard's computer screen.

"Good morning, Mister Freeman," the guard greeted him. "I had a bunch of messages for you, but we had a system crash, I don't know, about 20 minutes ago?"

Gordon nodded. It wasn't unusual. At least he wouldn't have to spend ages catching up on each of them before he got to the Test Chamber. Most likely they were spam messages and analysis reports that he never read anyway. No loss.

"Anyway," continued the guard, "I'm still trying to find my files. Just one of those days, I guess. They were having some problems down in the Test Chamber, too, but I think that's all straightened out."

"Do you know what went wrong down there?" Gordon asked him.

"I think it was something to do with getting the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to 100 plus percent."

Gordon started. This was new on him.

"They told me that you were to head down there as soon as you got into your Hazard Suit."

Gordon headed for the personnel facilities, feeling glad. The problems with the A-M S must have delayed them finding someone else. That meant his routine was back on track.

Around the corner, he was stopped by another scientist, Doctor Rissem? (he wasn't good at putting names to faces and he was still slightly hung over), carrying a large box of papers.

"Ah, hello, Gordon Freeman, it's good to see you," he greeted. "Could you possibly take this over to Development? There's some guard round there who won't let me in."

Gordon took the box, and the scientist went into the nearby databank room. As soon as the door closed, he heard a chuckling. Gordon thought about this. Then he twigged. He'd been conned.

_Damn._

He carried the box around the next corner to Development anyway. Up the ramp, around the...

His attention snapped back to the office on the far side of the corridor. Clearly, through the glass, he could see the man in the blue suit he'd seen at the railyard station, arguing with somebody he didn't know. Gordon narrowed his eyes. That wasn't possible. His train had been stuck outside that station, and even if he managed to get out and change trains he'd still arive behind Gordon. There was just no way that...

He whacked into another scientist and fell to the floor. Papers flew everywhere. Both the men sat there for a moment dazed, then apologized to each other simultaneously and started clearing up the papers. Gordon glanced back at the office, and the man in the blue suit looked at him. Everything seemed to freeze for a moment.

Then, the man in the blue suit frowned, and turned back to his argument. By now, the papers were all cleared up. The other scientist offered to take them into the other Dev office for him. Gordon gladly accepted. He was already late. He backtracked, and walked around a few more corridors to the locker room.

On the way, he passed the cafeteria, inside which Doctors Scott and Magnusson were discussing the experiment, and Gordon couldn't resist sidling over to the microwave and disrupting whatever was cooking, as he had done multiple times in the past. It turned out to be a casserole, and made a nice 'splat' sound as it exploded. Doctor Magnusson shot up with an angry look on his face, and Gordon legged it.

As the door to the locker room opened, another scientist, who he recognised as Doctor Krins, was just finishing tieing his shoelaces. As Gordon headed for the HEV suit storage bank, Krins fiddled with his tie and complained loudly. "Why do we all have to wear these _ridiculous_ ties?"

Gordon sighed and used his ID card to gain access to the last HEV suit. The other two had been taken, presumably, by Doctors Collette Green and... Gina Cross. The roster on the wall reported them to have both taken out suits for 'maintenance work in Test Lab 33/A'. That would mean they would be below him during the experiment.

He quickly stripped down to his underwear and slid into the suit. He'd commented on the fact that it made anyone wearing it look like a robot. All limbs went into their right holes, then Gordon flipped up the HEV eyepiece, and plugged the earpiece in.

"Welcome..." said the HEV suit's recorded system, "...to the HEV Mark 4 protective system. For use in Hazardous Environment Conditions."

Gordon bundled his clothes into his locker. He then remembered that his locker key was in his shirt pocket. A search through the bundle revealed it stuck to a piece of chewing gum. That went in the bin. After a few moments of struggling to get the key to turn in the lock, he gave up. Noone was going to steal anything, anyway.

Another few moments later, he was jogging down the corridor towards the elevator, ignoring the suit's diagnostical checks coming from the earpiece and the sound of Doctor Magnusson yelling at him. He would have signalled the guard to open the door early, but they'd recently tightened the security and it now required the guard's retina as well as a valid ID card.

Upon reaching said door, he slotted in his ID and waited patiently until the light on the reader turned green.

"Go right on through, sir," said the guard, moving to the retinal scanner. "Looks like you're in the barrel today."

Gordon nodded, and willed the doors to open faster. They didn't. They opened at their usual speed. And he had another pair to go. Those went at the same speed, slowing Gordon down even more. As soon as he was through those, he sprinted for the elevator. Punching the call button, he dashed into the elevator and slammed the down button. The elevator started to descend. Slowly.

About halfway down, Gordon had had enough. He leapt from the elevator to the service ladder, and slid down that. His boots hit the platform with a clang, and the doors triggered like they should do. At least these ones went faster. He dashed past another couple of scientists, through more doors, skirted around a repair man who was wedging a panel open with a crowbar, narrowly avoided knocking some more scientists over, and DID knock a security guard over.

One of the scientists checked her watch. "Was that the late 8:30 Gordon Freeman to the Test Lab?"

Another gave her a look. "Why are you asking me?"

Gordon burst through the door into the control room, panting heavily. It was a hubbub of activity as the experiment was a very important one. The assembly of scientists, as one man, turned to him.

"Ah, Gordon, there you are. You're late," stated Doctor Isaac Kleiner, putting his hands onto his hips. Gordon could only nod and catch his breath back.

"Tch. Anyway, we've just sent the sample down to the test chamber."

Gordon looked up. They'd only just delivered it? Him being late was starting to not look so bad. Some of the other scientists turned back to the controls.

Doctor James Marten spoke next. "We had to take some time to boost the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to 105 percent."

Gordon considered this. So it was true. "Isn't that risky?"

"Yes," James agreed, "it's a bit of a gamble, but we need the extra resolution."

"The administrator is _very _concerned that we get a conclusive analysis of today's sample," Doctor Felix Kimber pointed out. "He doesn't usually take this much of an interest, but he seems to do with this one. I gather they went to some lengths to get it. This is top security stuff, Gordon."

The scientists monitoring the computer banks called James over. He started walking to it, then stopped, and whispered something to Isaac. Isaac nodded slowly, and turned to Gordon.

"They're waiting for you, Gordon... in the test chamber," he said, drawing out the 'r' in chamber, before walking over to the exit on the other side of the room. He bent down, put his eyes up to the retinal scanner, and activated it. The door slid open with a whoosh, and Gordon walked through. He then wiped his forehead. He was lucky. Very lucky. Lucky to still have a job. If they'd finished calibrating the Anti-Mass Spectrometer earlier, and delivered the sample earlier, then he might as well have lost his job right then and there. But they didn't, and he didn't, so it was all right.

He continued walking down the corridor, past some observation tanks, to the Test Lab Rotary Lift. He was almost there, passing some scientists, when a console on the other side of the room exploded.

"It's about to go critical!" Doctor Parsons screamed, then all three of them, Gordon, Doctor Parsons, and Doctor Eli Vance, raced over there to examine it. If the equipment failed then Gordon's Ph.D wouldn't be a lot of good to him anymore.

"What the hell is going on with our equipment?" Vance questioned nobody in particular. Parsons, next to him, bent down to examine a fuse box.

"You do know," he said, peering at the fuses, "that it wasn't meant to do this in the first place, right?"

Vance shook his head. "Let's just hope it can withstand the experiment."

Gordon, now unnerved, slipped away back to the TLRL, and punched the button. It appeared out of the hole in the floor of the next chamber like a fish being pulled out of the water. He stepped into the lift. Going down.

On the lower level, he walked around a corner into the large passage leading to the test chamber, then along the corridor's curve. He was now minutes away from the experiment. He just had to hope that the equipment did hold out. The door to the test lab's antechamber opened in front of him, He stepped through, and it slammed behind him. He didn't know it yet, but it would be the last time he saw it like that. There were two scientists waiting for him in the antechamber. One, Doctor Stuart Mandon, spoke up.

"I'm afraid we'll be deviating a bit from standard analysis procedures today, Gordon," he informed. Gordon rolled his eyes.

"This is to do with the 'rare' sample, and the AMS boost to 105, isn't it?" he asked, folding his arms. "Don't tell me. I've got to be extra careful not to dislodge the sample, and to keep to instruction at all times."

"Yes..." spoke up the other scientist, Dr Joshua Yates, "but with _good reason!_ This is a rare opportunity for us. This sample is high quality. It's the purest one we've seen yet."

"And," objected Stuart, "potentially, the most unstable."

Gordon sighed, put his hand on his head, and shook the latter. They did this every time. Arguing about experiment conditions. There hadn't been a time when they didn't do it. They had supposedly been doing it since Stuart was transferred over from Sector F. And it always ended the same way, in them finally agreeing on the point they were arguing over.

"Now, now, if you follow standard insertion procedures, everything will be fine," reassured Joshua. Gordon thought about this.

"So, should I just do what I always do?" asked Gordon, starting to get confused. Now it was Joshua's turn to sigh.

"Just listen to the announcements. They know what they're doing, if none of us do. They're the ones who make the experiment run smoothly," he explained.

"I don't know how you can say that," disagreed Stuart, "but I will admit that the possibility of a Resonance Cascade Scenario is extremely unlike-"

Joshua interrupted. "Gordon doesn't need to hear all of this."

They both glanced at Gordon, who was sitting against the wall fiddling with his HUD settings. So far, he'd managed to turn the display vomit green, and change the language to some language he didn't know. Still looking at him, Joshua continued, "He's a highly trained professional."

"Are you two getting to the point now or should I just continue to change the settings on this thing?" Gordon asked, looking up, completely oblivious to what had just been said. Joshua took this chance, and whispered into Stuart's ear. "Besides, we've assured the administrator that _nothing will go wrong,_" he hissed, glancing at Gordon a second time.

"Ah, yes, you're right," said Stuart loudly, to attract Gordon's attention away from the HUD. "Gordon, we have complete confidence in you."

Finally. Gordon stood up. He also triggered the reset button on his HUD, changing the colour back to orange and the language back to English-American.

"Well, now," said Joshua. "Let's let him in now."

"Yes," agreed Gordon, "let's. Let's let Gordon in so he can do the experiment instead of listening to you two yammering away."

The two retinal scanners on either side of the room beeped as they recognized the retinæ of Dr Mandon and Dr Yates. The giant door hissed, then rumbled open, revealing the pride and joy of the Anomalous Materials department. The Anti-Mass Spectrometer.

While the door rumbled back behind Gordon, there was a high-pitched whistling. He covered his ears. It got him every time. Every time the announcement system did this, and every time he forgot to cover his ears before it happened. After a moment, he tested and released one hand.

"Testing, testing!" came Isaac's voice through the PA. He coughed. "Everything seems to be in order."

At times like these, Gordon wished there was a way to talk back to them. Yelling up to the control room window did not do wonders for a person's voice, and the experimental message delivery system complete with drive chain and buckets broke before it was even implemented. They had to resort to sign language, or the very basics thereof.

"All right, Gordon," announced Felix, "your suit should keep you comfortable through all this, and the specimen should be delivered to you in a few moments. If you would be so good as to climb up to the balcony, and start the rotors..."

Gordon was already on his way up. He'd overheard whilst in the control room that they hadn't got the connection to the rotor controls reestablished after the crash.

"...we can bring the Anti-Mass Spectrometer to 80 percent and hold it there, until the carrier arrives."

He sat down on the metal seat, and started typing away at the keyboard. The rotor software was already running, at least he wouldn't have to try and remember the password for the security blockout. He typed a few commands in, and the rotors of the A-MS in the centre of the cylindrical room started to spin. Now James's voice came over the intercom.

"Very good. We'll take it from here."

Gordon slid back down the ladder to the other computer, Typing a few more commands in, he brought up an overview of what they were doing in the control room. They were starting to feed power to the emitters.

"Power to Stage 1 emitters... building... and activating... _now,_" said Issac.

In the centre of the room, a single beam focused itself from the emitter just below the rotors to a point in the centre of the Spectrometer.

"I'm seeing predictable phase arrays," Isaac continued.

"Gordon," came James's voice, "could you take a look at the phase lights and tell us whether Stage Two is available for deployment? Ours are broken. Again."

Then, quieter, perhaps to somebody else, he said, "Did they actually fix them last time, or tinker about with the settings and tell us they'd fixed it?"

The phase lights were situated on a panel on the floor-level podium that encompassed the focal point for the emitter. Gordon jumped off the seat and went over to check it. As he got close, Felix's voice came over the intercom.

"What is he doing in there? Tell him to stand away from the podium, that suit won't do him any good if he wanders into the beam."

Gordon rolled his eyes, then checked the panel. The upper light was yellow, because Stage One was active, but Stage Two's light was red... no it wasn't, it was green now. Above him, the three secondary emitters started to rotate around the central primary emitter. He turned to the control room window, and could just about make out James looking at him. Gordon gave him the thumbs up. James turned around.

"Stage Two emitters... activating... _now,_" Isaac announced. The Stage Two beams focused themselves on the point where the primary beam struck. Gordon put his goggles on. It was going to get really bright in here, and it wouldn't do AM any good if his retinæ were burnt out.

"Overhead capacitors to... one, oh, and five percent," said James.

"Uhh..." started Felix, "It's probably not a problem... probably, but I'm seeing a small discrepancy in... no, it's well within acceptable boundaries again. Sustaining sequence."

This didn't sound good. Last time one of the team had sounded unsure about something the sample had blown up in their faces, and they only just had enough time to shut it down. Across the room, the four lights on the upper corners of a rectangular area grated off started to flash red.

"Are you sure, Felix?" Gordon yelled up, but he doubted he could be heard over the din.

"Ah, here we go," James reported, not hearing. "I've just been informed that the sample is ready, Gordon, it should be making it's way up to you any moment now. Look to the delivery system for your specimen."

He hadn't actually needed to say that last sentence, because Gordon was already there. Unless the sample was in the room already, which it wasn't, the delivery system was the only way it could get in. The metal cover over the carrier's elevator slid away, and the carrier itself arrived level with the podium's entrance ramp with a thunk. The barriers then slid away. The sample was a beautiful yellow crystal. Sometimes he wondered where they got the samples, but that was level 9 clearance bounds only. He grasped the handles of the sample's mount.

* * *

Aaaand that's all you get for this chapter.

NOW LOADING... RESONANCE CASCADE


	8. The Resonance Cascade

**CHλPTER SEVEN**

**THE RESONλNCE CλSCλDE**

It's funny how just one mistaken move can change lives.

SECTOR G MAIN ACCESS LIFT

Barney strolled toward the Sector G elevator. There was no need for him to hurry, especially where Sector G was concerned, but apparently the scientists in the elevator had other ideas.

"It's about time!" exclaimed one of them, folding his arms. "We don't pay you people to mosey about at your own convenience. Make this thing _work _so we can get on with this miserable day."

Scientists. Not one bit of gratitude among them. Barney bent down to inspect the elevator's control panel. He flipped it open, revealing a mess of wires, one of which had been severed. Good. Something simple. He retrieved a roll of electrical tape from his toolbox, put on some rubber gloves and carefully wrapped the tape around the broken ends of the wire. A light above them flickered on.

"There we go," he said, brushing his hands together, then packing away the tape and gloves. He then turned to walk out of the elevator, and the doors closed in his face. Of course. Now that the wiring was repaired, it would go to wherever it had last been told. He'd just have to wait until it reached his destination and he could go back up.

"At last..." sighed the other scientist.

SECTOR A TRANSIT LINE TUNNEL  
BETWEEN SECTOR E AND AREA 4

"So, Linda..." William asked through his BM cellphone, "Have you got those signals working yet?"

"Of course not. How long do you think this takes? I need Lucy's signal know-how and David's grasp of wiring diagrams. Travis can keep an eye out for other trains from Facility A, and you..." Linda faltered a bit, then recovered her composure. "You can run the Hazard Course again, because Dr Hunt has just informed me that you haven't taken it for a few months."

Lucy sniggered. William threw her a withering look.

"Have they updated it since then?"

"Yes, William. Three times."

"So what's new then?"

"Am I really going to tell you?"

"Never mind... I'm hanging up now, see you in a minute."

William canceled the call, then looked at the others. Lucy was still sniggering, David was stifling a laugh, and Travis was just being Travis.

"Geez, anyone'd think you lot weren't as old as you are," he muttered, turning around to face the front of the train.

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS  
TEST LAB C/33A CONTROL ROOM

The scientists gathered eagerly awaited the results of the test, as they watched Gordon push the sample towards the analysis beam.

Suddenly, the door up the rest of Anomalous Materials burst open, and Doctor Rosenberg, a scientist who was supposed to be taking the day off, leapt in. "Halt the experiment!" he gasped, trying to catch his breath back. "The sample's going to cause a resonance cascade!"

A couple of people laughed. Kleiner just sighed and started steering Rosenberg back towards the door. "Stanley, there is no cause for undue alarm. The experiment is proceeding as planned."

They left the control room.

HIGH SECURITY TRAIN TUNNEL, LEVEL 4  
JUST TO THE NORTH OF ANOMALOUS MATERIALS

"I'd say about five minutes."

The train driver sighed. Five minutes seemed like an eternity on a train carrying several tonnes of explosive for excavation purposes.

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS  
TEST LAB C/33A

Gordon grasped the handles of the sample's mount, and began pushing it towards the focal beam. _Come on, Collette, don't fail me now... _he thought. If Collette had mounted the sample incorrectly, the analysis would be ruined, and probably the sample would be too. That had happened once, apparently, when he wasn't on the job. Oh well. _Here goes nothing..._

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS  
JUST OUTSIDE TEST LAB C/33A

Doctor Vance watched Gordon on a monitor with satisfaction. This was a hugely important experiment, and he would be glad to see it over and done with.

"Doctor... hhh... Vancce?"

He spun around. There was a man in a blue suit standing there. "Do you have the clearance to be down here?" Vance demanded. The man in the blue suit smiled.

"Prepare... for unforsseen... hhh... conssequencess."

With sudden clarity, Vance turned back around. The experiment had to be sto-

On the monitor, he watched Gordon push the sample into the analysis beam. At that moment, both Vance and Gordon looked at their watches.

09:19:30

Doctor Vance went white. "Oh, shi-"

And all hell broke loose.

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS  
TEST LAB C/33A

The force of the shockwave emitted by the sample threw Gordon back against the wall underneath the control room. As one man, the scientists above him panicked.

HIGH SECURITY TRAIN TUNNEL, LEVEL 4  
JUST TO THE NORTH OF ANOMALOUS MATERIALS

The train threw itself in the air briefly before landing again, derailing itself. Its driver spat out a boiled sweet. "What the fuck..." he muttered, hitting the brakes and turning on the monitor with which he could view his cargo.

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS  
TEST LAB C/33A CONTROL ROOM

Despite the panic setting in in the Control Room, James threw himself at the controls and hit the auto shutdown button.

"Gordon!" yelled Felix, who couldn't see Gordon, into the microphone. "Get away from the beam!"

"Shutting down..." reported James. Then he blinked. Nothing was changing. He hit the button again. And again. "Attempting to shut down..."

HIGH SECURITY TRAIN TUNNEL, LEVEL 4  
JUST TO THE NORTH OF ANOMALOUS MATERIALS

The train driver's eyes widened when he saw his highly explosive cargo being tossed around like juggling balls. "Sh-" he began, before the inevitable happened.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SUBSTATION 1  
DIRECTLY ABOVE HIGH SECURITY TRAIN TUNNEL

The floor of the substation rumbled briefly before it ripped open, throwing a fireball to the surface incinerating everything in its way. As the levels and the people it had just seconds ago contained burned, all lines of communication in the facility went dead.

POWER GENERATOR BANK C7  
DIRECTLY BELOW HIGH SECURITY TRAIN TUNNEL

The maintenance crews on hand in the generator room wondered briefly what the loud noise was before their world exploded. Every generator running was now running hot. Literally.

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS  
TEST LAB C/33A CONTROL ROOM

"...it's not shutting down!" James yelled, the panic returning. "It's not shutting down, it's not..." He looked out of the window at the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, which was sparking and glowing green.

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS  
TEST LAB C/33A

Gordon looked up just in time to see the bolt of green lightning arc between the Anti-Mass Spectrometer and the control room, and didn't need the PA to hear the screams when it exploded. He huddled up in a ball and just waited for it to happen.

POWER GENERATOR BANK C7

The doors above the chamber now gave way, crushing some generators. Those that weren't crushed exploded from the heat. Any place powered by that bank in particular would now experience a blackout.

The facility-wide PA snapped on with a warning from the power control managers.

"Warning. Main power failure on levels 3, 5 and 8."

SECTOR A TRANSIT LINE TUNNEL  
BETWEEN SECTOR E AND AREA 4

Without warning, the lights snapped off and the train stopped abruptly, throwing everyone to the floor.

"Warning. Main power failure on levels 3, 5 and 8."

"Is everyone ok?" asked William, feeling around him. He stepped on something squishy. He looked down, but of course, it was too dark to see anything. He called out.

"Who did I just step on?"

"I'm over here," Travis whimpered from the far corner.

"And I'm under this seat," Lucy commented. "David?"

A moment of silence.

"Please don't say I just stepped on David," William moaned.

"Then don't say it," came David's voice. "I'm stuck under a seat over here."

"If none of you are here, who did I step on?"

SECTOR G MAIN ACCESS LIFT  
LEVEL 3

The elevator jerked to a stop just past level 3. The PA bonged. "Warning, main power failure on levels three, five and eight."

The scientist who'd rebuked Barney earlier groaned. "Oh, no... It's probably those Anomalous Materials people again," he explained. "Always pushing their equipment too hard, dabbling in who knows what, I'd be surprised if there's one good brain among them."

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS  
TEST LAB C/33A

Gordon opened his eyes. Completely black. He was dead. And he'd been looking forward to the rest of his day. Especially lunch. Oh well. He uncurled from his ball (odd that he was still in it) and walked forward. He could hear his own breathing, too. Extremely odd. It was as if...

FLASH!

The surrounding blackness flashed green, and instantly became replaced with the Test Chamber once more, on emergency lighting. So he wasn't dead. And instead he was able to witness the AMS jerk downwards about one foot.

"Warning," the PA bonged, "Extreme electromagnetic hazard in Sector C."

SECTOR G MAIN ACCESS LIFT  
LEVEL 4

Some lights flashed, and the emergency backup power kicked in. The elevator descended again. Then it jerked to a stop again. "Warning, extreme electromagnetic hazard in Sector C," reported the PA.

"What did I tell you?" the scientist remarked. Sector C is Anoma-"

The light next him exploded. The other scientist screamed as the talker slumped over forwards.

SECTOR A TRANSIT LINE TUNNEL  
BETWEEN SECTOR E AND AREA 4

The exterior tunnel lights snapped back on. On the floor, with a boot mark in it, was... was...

Travis turned around and puked out of the back of the train. Lucy rolled out from under the seat and stood up.

Amidst all this, the PA bonged again. "Warning, extreme electromagnetic hazard in Sector C."

It was some sort of crab creature, but not like any seen on Earth. Yellow blood was seeping out of a corner of it. Lucy and William backed away. Travis was still vomiting, and David... his position was awkward, to say the least.

Lucy dropped down and grabbed his arm. She managed to pull him halfway out when there was another electric sounding noise, and another crab creature appeared on David's back. It seemed to regard Lucy for a moment before throwing itself at her face. She screamed, and flailed her arms.

David crawled forward and managed to release himself, leaping straight for the crab and whacking it with his emergency torch. It was dislodged from Lucy's face with a slight ripping sound, and it flew back onto one of the seats with a cry, kind of like a bird's. William decided that if it was going to try and latch itself to any of his team, it could think again. He kicked it out of the window.

Lucy was still screaming. She had a gash in her cheek, and David was trying to patch it up with the emergency medical kit he'd grabbed from under another seat when he was on the floor.

"What..." questioned William, peering out of the window the crab had flown out of, "the hell... was that?"

Lucy was hysterical. "It... it... it was digging into me! I felt it... _inside me_!" she screamed. Travis turned around. His face was green.

"I don't feel too good..." he complained, before seeing Lucy's face and spinning back round again.

SECTOR G MAIN ACCESS LIFT  
LEVEL 3

"My goodness!" the lone scientist left with Barney cried, and went to examine his companion's body. It was lying under a piece of metal, and didn't look any more alive than the dummies in the radioactivity hazard training programme Barney had been through before taking up this post.

The elevator dropped next to a service window and jammed again. Outside, he could see a scientist in a storage room, and a portion of the old rail system. They were deep.

Green flashes, green balls, were appearing and disappearing all over the place, with electric sounding noises. A scientist ran out from a doorway on a lower level. He appeared to be running away from something. What from became apparent quickly.

Chasing the scientist were strange... dog-like creatures. With three legs. And some sort of compound eye instead of two normal ones. They chased the scientist to a place out of Barney's viewpoint. Behind them, another security guard emerged, firing at them.

Another electric sounding noise, and nearby in the storage room, another creature appeared, but Barney only had a quick glimpse before it started chasing the scientist out of the room.

"HEEEY!"

He and the scientist with him watched as the other security guard turned to the transit rail and waved his arms frantically... before diving out of the way as another security guard on an out-of-control train smashed through the barrier blocking it, and hit the buffers at the end of its track. It catapulted a barrel through one of the storage room's windows. It then exploded.

Then the elevator shuddered, and shards of metal bounced off its roof. Then, there was a very long sound like cable unwinding.

"Grab onto something!" he barked at the scientist, who obeyed and grabbed onto one of the side rails. Barney braced himself against the doors of the elevator, closed his eyes, and awaited his fate. There was a creaking noise, and for one moment the elevator stilled. He risked opening his eyes.

_SNAP!_

The elevator plummeted to the bottom of the complex. Barney didn't even bother screaming.

SECTOR E TRANSIT JUNCTION  
TRANSIT CONTROL ROOM

Dennis had already heard the announcements, but his crew were busy focusing on the fact that when the power failed on levels 3, 5 and 8 the Sector A line got taken out as well, and they had to work around that. At least the trouble with the realtime boards had been fixed.

The room shuddered, throwing objects off desks and people to the ground.

"What the hell?" somebody asked from the other side of the room, while Dennis got up from where he'd landed and walked to the window overlooking the junction. Chunks of concrete had fallen from the wall. Something was going on...

A stronger tremor hit them, and he watched with horror as the cables holding the eastbound Sector E Line platform snapped, and it along with those waiting on it plummeted to the bottom of the converted silo, followed by an almighty cracking sound.

Dennis barely had time to turn around, run for the back wall of the room, yelling as he did so, and pushing both Larry and Xavier along with him, before the cracking sound turned into a roar and the entire front half of the control room dropped into the silo, along with anyone who hadn't made it in time.

A beat passed, and then he was up, gathering everybody together and working out who was alive and who'd plummeted to their death.

SECTOR A TRANSIT LINE TUNNEL  
BETWEEN SECTOR E AND AREA 4

There was a loud _thunk_, and the sound of electrical sparks from the rail below them. William looked down, and flexed his fingers into a fist and back. "Just... when were these rails last replaced?" he asked slowly. David looked up on the verge of answering.

A moment later he was answered instead by a nearby explosion, the track beneath them gave way and the train plummeted to the floor of the tunnel. Everyone screamed, and the emergency lights gave out once more.

SECTOR C ANOMALOUS MATERIALS  
TEST LAB C/33A

It was all becoming too much for Gordon. This was throwing his carefully planned day out of the window. Sometimes he just wished -

FLASH!

He wasn't in the test chamber anymore. Gordon spun around, and around, and around again. He was in some... place... alien place. He then spotted what was in front of him, and jumped back. Some... thing... things... were in front of him. They didn't look anything like he'd ever seen before... It had the hind legs of some hooved animal, a thick, yellow-gungy body, and red tentacles. It had no front legs. Gordon did the only thing he could think of. He screamed. The tentacle-thing looked up...

FLASH!

And he wasn't in the alien place anymore. Now, he was in some sort of spotlight... in front of four more creatures. They each had a single, red eye, a sickly brown body, and two small appendages sticking out of what in humans would be the waist area. Unlike the creature he'd seen a few seconds previously, they had forearms. They appeared to be regarding him with a lot of interest.

Gordon backed away, having finished his scream, holding his hands in front of him. Why couldn't he have died?

FLASH!

All went black again.

AREA 4 COMMAND COMPLEX  
ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE

Wallace Breen was pleased. Admittedly, the experiment had taken place nearly an hour late, but at least it had taken place. If it hadn't, there would have been a lot of explaining to do.

"Sir, the HECU will be arriving momentarily."

"Excellent."

Breen grinned sadistically. In front of him, the monitor that showed an overview of the facility started flashing red in one specific area. Then another. And another.

"Time to have some fun."

* * *

This is a very busy chapter, I know, but then again, it's a very busy facility. The two announcements used are lifted from the elevator scene in Blue Shift, they aren't heard anywhere else, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up linking all the storylines together. So, that's it. The Resonance Cascade has occurred, several hundred lives have just been decided, and Black Mesa's fate is sealed.

BONUS LEVEL UNLOCKED!

NEXT LEVEL: LAST TIME GONE


	9. Last Time Gone

**CHλPTER EIGHT**

**LλST TIME GONE**

SECTOR F TRANSIT LINE TUNNELS  
BETWEEN REACTOR HALT AND AREA 5 CHECKPOINT B  
EARLIER THAT DAY...

This transit car, instead of being one of the regular trains from the rest of the network, was one of the unique cars custom modified to meet specifications designed by members of the Lambda Complex team. It didn't get the recorded announcement from Linda over in Transit. Instead the announcement system had been replaced with a heavy duty boom box complete with subwoofers under the seats. It was loud. So loud, in fact, the train had pretty quickly undergone a second conversion, this time for glass and soundproofing, as people had started to complain.

The line itself was unlike all of the others in the facility, being single-tracked besides a short section roughly in the middle. Regardless as to how the announcements had changed, this was still a high-security line, and a number of checks awaited anyone who made their way to the secret platform at Sector E. The line had been removed from all the maps in the facility. Only people with security clearance higher than 8 knew about it.

On board the train, now headed towards the heart of the Lambda Complex itself, were three men about to join a mission that hardly anyone in the complex knew about, or were even authorised to know about.

As soon as the train was clear of the door, a scientist appeared at a nearby window and lowered the blast door. They were going to start up the reactor, and if that tunnel was left open, there was a high risk of radiation exposure all the way to Sector E.

There was a _clunk_ as the train latched into place, and abruptly the boombox shut off, leaving the station in silence until the door opened. A scientist walked up to greet them.

"Morning, boys," he joked, taking a glance at a clipboard, then studying the three men intently to make sure they weren't being impersonated. No, there was no way to impersonate Aaron Inge, Adam Vango was unique in his own way, and Joe "Egg" Hunter was impossible to miss.

There was a chorus of "Morning, Luke".

"So," continued Dr Luke Holland-Batt, glancing again at his clipboard. "I trust you have received the video briefings?"

Adam nodded. "Yep."

They'd been waiting for this all along, of course. As soon as they'd been given clearance to the Xenian projects, they'd been volunteering for nearly everything. From driving trains carrying fragile equipment to diving into the coolant tanks to unblock the pipes. They'd wanted to be in with the core of these projects, and now they were.

They'd woken up in the morning, in their different lodgings around the Facility, and had been greeted by an encoded email containing their video briefings. They were to meet up with the Research Team on the border world, proceed to study samples, recon, etcetera. Normal stuff.

Dr Holland-Batt nodded in satisfaction. "Alright. We've just sent orders down to flood the coolant chambers, so the reactor should be more or less ready. Head in and kit up."

All three Lambda Team personnel followed Luke out of the door to the elevator. They piled in, Luke pressed the button for Level A, and with a slight jerk, they rose to the peak of the Complex.

At the top, Dr Holland-Batt entered the room stacked with crates first, so that he had enough room to tap out the security code for the big glass doors on the right. Once he had it open, they all trooped through the door underneath the Lambda logo into the supply room.

First, before they could kit up with any equipment, they had to don their Hazard Suits. These were Mk Vs, more advanced than Hazard suits found elsewhere in the facility. They had to be, for where they were going. While they changed, Luke unlocked the weapon lockers.

"Now, you shouldn't have need for any weapons," he explained, "but regulation insists you take at least a pistol each, in case any of the Xenian... inhabitants turn up."

While Adam and Aaron took theirs, Joe spun it round his finger a few times before holstering it. The others flinched – they knew all too well what could happen when Joe mucked around with a firearm. They'd had to close the Hazard Course for a couple of days while they tried to remove the pistol that had short-circuited the holographic assistant program.

"Any chance of seeing what's through there?" Aaron questioned, pointing to the small pair of doors at the end of the room. Luke rolled his eyes.

"No, we've calculated enough that you won't need what's in there."

Joe raised his eyebrows. They never calculated right, from what they heard. "Positive?"

Luke sighed, and activated the retinal scanner for the door into the core. "Absolutely."

There was the sound of footsteps behind them, and they turned around, as one man, to see the security guard leaning against a crate and panting. Luke looked at his watch, then at his clipboard.

"Fashionably late as always, James?" he asked sarcastically. James White looked up.

"Sorry, Doc," he explained, "Woke up late, and by the time I got to the blast shield it was closed, and I had to run all the way here."

"Good exercise for ya," interjected Adam. "You needed it anyway."

James huffed. "Be glad I don't shoot you now."

Luke sighed, and stepped in between the two.

"Now, now, boys," he began, but he was cut off by a radio transmission from a small handheld in his pocket.

"Coolant tanks 1 and 2 are fully operational, Doc," came the muffled voice of Phil Douglas, the head engineer down below Level D, in the coolant tank area. Luke rolled his eyes. Finally.

"Thanks, Phil," he responded, glancing at the team. "Miles? Want to start firing up the reactor?"

Pause.

"Miles?" Luke repeated, frowning, then mouthing 'Where is he?' at James. James pointed to himself, then got the idea and jogged out of the room and down the corridor away from the elevator. At the other end of it, past the maintenance ladder back down to level B, he politely knocked on the door marked 'Level A – Reactor Control'. There was a moment of silence. James knocked again. The third time he resorted to slamming his fists into the door.

This time, the door opened, revealing a haggard-looking scientist with bags under his eyes and a cup of coffee in his hand. He startled when he saw James, put down his coffee, then turned back to the security guard.

"Here early, eh, James?" Miles asked, turning around and heading for a small sofa he'd had brought in. James followed him in.

"Sir, it's half past seven."

Miles stopped. "No, it can't be," he muttered, before looking at his watch. "Oh Christ. It is. Are they-" he shot an inquisitive look at James, who nodded. Miles made a small scream, picked up and drank his coffee in one gulp, and, putting a lab coat on, hurried up the stairs towards the reactor's control booth.

A few moments later, James having returned to the kit room, Miles' voice came over the radio. "Morning, guys."

Luke rolled his eyes. "So nice of you to join us, Doctor Smith. Care to get the reactor up and running?"

A few clicks. "Already doing it."

"Well," stated Joe, raising his eyebrows. "This is it. First time off-dimension."

"Now you're making it sound like _Stargate_," accused Adam, laughing.

There was a loud crash from somewhere in the middle distance. Everyone shut up and stood very still; they knew how volatile Lambda Complex equipment could be. Eventually, Luke relaxed just enough to activate his radio.

"Ok... what was that?" he asked suspiciously. There was static for a moment.

"To be honest, I have no idea..." Miles said slowly. "It sounded like it came from Level B."

Luke rolled his eyes, and sighed. Somebody was going to have to don a radiation suit and investigate. Then a thought hit him, and he looked at the team.

"I need a volunteer."

A minute or so later, Aaron was climbing down the service ladder to Level B. Joe, Luke had decided, was too likely to break something vital, and Adam had a history of weak resistance to radiation sickness, leaving only Mr Inge.

Aaron tapped the security code into the panel for the Core Access Airlock. The door hissed open, and he stepped in, making sure his helmet was fully secured. He was about to enter an area that regularly got zapped with radiation. The door clicked shut behind him, and he gripped the handles that would open the door. If anything went wrong now, he wouldn't know it.

He twisted the handles slowly, and after the _clunk_, pushed carefully. The door swung open onto the upper observation level of the CCC, the Central Core Column. As soon as he stepped inside, the problem became apparent. A broken portion of vent lay jammed in between one of the rotating platforms and Port 8, and that was preventing the platform from rotating.

He tapped his radio. "We've got a jam here," he reported. There was a hiss of static.

"Strawberry or raspberry?" joked Miles.

"Shut up, Miles," suggested Luke. "How serious is it, Aaron?"

"Upper rotating platforms completely jammed, Port 8 blocked."

"Give it a blast of coolant," advised Phil. "There's nothing that won't fix."

"NO!" yelled both Luke and Miles at the same time. They both knew that any liquid interference in any of the nine ports would cause a massive explosion, unless the reactor was shut down.

"Any way to remove it?" continued Luke.

Aaron inspected it through the safety bars. "We could always use the displacer-"

"NO!" shouted Luke again. "The displacer is far too unstable, any shot like that and you could destroy the reactor!"

"So how do YOU suggest we remove it, then?" asked Aaron.

"Well, the-hey!" Luke was interrupted by something, which turned out to be Joe.

"Melt it with a flamethrower!" he suggested. Aaron slapped his helmet in the place that his forehead would be. There was a moment of silence. Then a new voice cut across them.

"Lab B106?" it suggested. The radio remained silent for a few seconds while everybody regained their composure. This voice was not often heard.

"George Amber. Where did you come from?" Miles asked cautiously.

"From where I came from. Look, they were doing teleportation experiments in B106, remember? Remote creation of teleports?"

The sound of snapping fingers came over the radio. "Of course!" said Luke. "We can use the equipment in there to teleport the obstruction out! You're a genius, Amber!"

Silence.

"George?"

More silence.

"He's gone again," said Miles. "I'd hurry up and remove it, whoever's down there, because sooner or later this reactor's gonna need the upper ports to function, and when it finds 8 blocked, it's gonna bork and I'll have to start all over again."

"Get down there, Aaron," requested Luke. "And hurry up."

Aaron stepped into the small elevator in the corner and poked the button for the lower half of Level B. For a few moments he was left in darkness as it dropped through the unlit shaft, but he quickly emerged into the lower observation area. He opened this door, shut it behind him, then waited for the air to be cleaned of all traces of radioactive particles before tapping in the code to open up the outer door.

Laboratory B-106 was only a quick jog down the corridor, and opening it revealed a large control console with a lot of complicated controls. However, the basics of it were pretty simple. On the screen above the console, there was a schematic map of the Lambda complex, currently set to Level C. Aaron skimmed over the controls and found the level change button, and worked it up to Level B-3, then moved some crosshairs to roughly the place where the vent was. As for the destination, a quick check of the controls revealed the word "Xen", the border world. That would do.

"Fixed yet?" came Luke's voice.

"Nearly," replied Aaron. "Just worried. If I screw this up, I'll either teleport the rotating platform or a chunk of the teleportation column to the borderworld."

He pressed the button.

_CHUNK. BZAP! Whirrrrrrrr..._

Aaron started breathing slowly again. "I think I did it."

A few minutes later, it was revealed that indeed the vent was gone, and the platforms were now rotating. Disaster averted. Aaron returned to the kit room, and discovered that Adam and Joe had moved on to the reactor chamber. Luke nodded him through.

"Good luck, Aaron."

As soon as Aaron entered the reactor room, there was another loud whirring noise, then something crashed again. Joe looked up from his jam sandwich.

"What now?" he asked with a mouthful.

"Nothing to worry about, guys," explained Miles cheerfully. "Just locking a capacitor into place. Couple minutes now tops."

The centre of the reactor room contained the Reactor's Core Teleport. The safety barriers had already been removed, and the locking beams had disengaged.

Adam frowned at Joe. "I wouldn't eat that, if I were you."

Joe crammed the rest of it in his mouth and swallowed it. "Why?"

Aaron whispered in Adam's ear just as he was about to explain, and a hardly noticable evil grin spread over his face.

"Never mind."

"We're good to go, boys!" yelled Miles from the control booth. Another loud whirring and the orange teleport ball with which the team had studied so laboriously. The one that would take them to the border world.

"Remember your helmets," reminded Luke over the radio.

After they'd locked their helmets in place, they stood side by side facing the teleport ball along the access ramp.

"Why does this remind me of _Stargate_?" Aaron asked of nobody in particular.

Luke sighed at them through the radio. "You've used that gag already."

"It was my gag," complained Joe. "But still, we've gotta get out there."

Adam nodded. "Then let's do it."

They started running along the access ramp, and at its end, leapt forwards into the teleport ball. Moments later, it shut down, the safety proceedures snapped on, and Miles could at last return to his little office.

The teleport process was not entirely unpleasant, although it wasn't really comfortable either. It felt as if they were being taken apart bit by bit, then haphazardly assembled, then disassembled again, and put back together again in the right order.

With a thump, they hit the borderworld's ground, and rolled. Aaron collided with a wall. Adam landed in something that looked like water. And Joe stopped rolling and threw up inside his helmet.

Thankfully, the helmet could automatically flush any foreign matter that appeared inside it, but that didn't stop it from being unpleasant. Aaron and Adam were laughing where they'd stopped, not having bothered to move yet.

Then Adam looked up, and took in the surroundings. It didn't look anything like the images of the base they'd seen. It appeared, that somewhere in the calculation process, somebody had Screwed Up. And that was never a good thing.

He snapped on his radio. "Can you pick me up, guys?"

"I read you," came Miles' voice. "What's the matter?"

Adam used his HUD to snap a few screenshots and sent them off to Earth. "This doesn't look anything like a base, does it?"

Miles swore loudly. "We must have misjudged the speed of the borderworld's rotation."

"Too right," Aaron interjected. "To me it looks like one of the places they passed through looking for a suitable location for home base."

"By those calculations," Miles worked out, "that would put you somewhere along this line."

An image appeared on their HUDs, showing an incomplete map, with a bright red line going from one side to near the centre. Adam zoomed in on the image.

"I would think we're roughly at this location," he said, placing a dot on the map roughly halfway on the line.

"Oh dear," commented Miles. "Looks like you've got some walking to do. I'll contact the base and let them know you're coming. Radio signals on the borderworld tend to bounce about a little."

And so they started walking, Joe still trying to get rid of the smell of vomit still lingering inside his helmet. They had a pretty easy time on the navigation, all they had to do was follow the tire tracks left by the recon truck as it had passed through before setting up base. A couple of times they had to find detours where the tracks led off the edge of a newly created ravine, and where a rockfall had blocked a tunnel.

Oddly enough, they saw no Xenians anywhere. They had seen from the video briefings that they should see at least 1 inhabitant every five minutes, but they hadn't seen any in ten. It was slightly worrying, knowing that at any point they could swarm over a hill and attack them.

At last, they arrived at the base. Or nearly, anyway. A new rockfall had blocked their path, and searching for a way around proved fruitless. They were going to be trapped for a while.

Finally, Aaron spoke into his radio. "And what are we supposed to do now?"

There was silence for a while, and then Miles' voice came over. "You are authorised to use explosives to get through that barrier. Just try not to hurt anyone doing it."

While Aaron fumbled with his pack of C4, Adam noticed that Joe was unusually quiet. A quick check revealed that he was in fact having a private conversation with Miles over his radio. Adam decided to leave him be.

"Stand back," Aaron warned, setting the timer. "That goes for any of you in the base as well. This is gonna be a big boom."

At this point, Joe opened up his communication channel again. "Miles says the base has been unusually quiet for a while."

"It's not like them," Miles confirmed. "Normally they're active drilling at this point in the day."

Adam sighed. "Maybe we caught them napping."

"Maybe, but-" Miles started, but his voice was drowned out by the C4 detonating. Chunks of rock flew haphazardly away from the explosion, flying at odd angles due to Xen's low gravity.

"Say again, Miles?" Adam asked.

Static.

"Miles?"

"The shockwave is probably having an effect on the radio," Joe suggested.

Then, with a loud snapping noise in their ears, the radio came back. To screams.

The trio froze. Not good.

"MILES!" Adam bellowed, "What the hell is going on back there?!"

"I, I don't kn-" Miles was cut off for a few seconds. "-thing's going on here, and I can't tell what's- -my God, what are the Xenians doing here?!"

The Xenians were on Earth. Oh shit. And then Aaron found something even worse.

"None of the base team are here!"

It was true. The base was completely abandoned. Not a soul anywhere. And the relay beacon was offline, which, they had been told, was not to be shut down in any circumstances. Aaron sprinted over to the controls. They were locked shut. And the only people authorised for use of the keys were the technicians back on Earth or the leader of the survey team.

_DRZZZZT!_

"Xenians!" screamed Adam, fumbling for his pistol. Aaron spun around, looking for a possible exit, and Joe did it again, flipping his Glock out and around his finger before firing at the Vortigaunts that had teleported in. A few seconds after the first one fell, Aaron called for them to move backwards into the base.

"The team left the survey vehicle," he reported to them, looking at it from where he was hiding behind the beacon controls. "Still looks operational, although we'll have to move those drills sitting on it."

Joe rolled out from behind a rock up to his knee, and started firing again. "Then let's do it!" he yelled, taking down another Vortigaunt.

There was a click as Adam reloaded, then emptied another clip into the oncoming aliens. "Do it fast!" he warned, "we're not gonna be able to hold them off much longer!"

Aaron watched a bolt of Vorti-lightning project itself past him, then took his chance and sprinted for it. Jumping into it, he grabbed the handle of the first drill and started heaving it off the side of the hovercraft. It took a couple of seconds, but soon it was tumbling off into the void, joined shortly by the second drill.

"Clear!" he yelled to the others, watching them. Now Vortigaunts were starting to appear in the tunnel in the cliff wall. They were surrounded on three sides, and they had to get out of there now.

And then the other two made their break for it. Adam simply started sprinting, while Joe continued firing blindly backwards, until he ran out of ammunition, at which point he simply dropped the pistol and ran faster. Adam threw himself into the craft, and Joe dived in just before more Vortigaunts teleported in. Aaron was already skimming the controls, trying to remember which control did which.

"Ok, hang on," he told the others, before grasping the control handles and jamming them forwards. The craft leapt forwards into the emptiness before the engines kicked in and they started ascending. Joe watched the base receede into the distance.

"Phew," he sighed, slumping down into the back. "We nearly didn't make it."

Adam nodded, then turned to face where they were going. "Where are we going, exactly?"

"Somewhere," Aaron told him. "Away from there, that's for sure. We've got to try and get back to Earth."

The vehicle powered its way deeper into the borderworld.

* * *

You'll hear from them again, don't worry. You will find out in the course of- well, I'm really not at liberty to say.

Okay, bad G-man joke.

NEXT LEVEL: UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES


End file.
